Bac Giang (VNA) – Oriꦺentations to promote the historical, cultural and religious values of the Buddhist woodblocks in Vinh Nghiem and Bo Da pagodas in the northern province of Bac Giang were dis🌊cussed among experts at a conference held in the locality on May 31.

According to Dr. Nguyen Quoc Tuan, director of the Institute for Religious Studies, preservation of the woodblocks must be attached with a suitable repository, temperature and responsibility of the managers. Workforces and financial resources should be added to the preservation work, he noted. Meanwhile, Nguyen Minh Duc, from the Vietnam Institute of Culture and Arts Studies (VICAS), suggested a line-up of measures to promote the valuable antiques as a tourism product, including building an exhibition house, publishing the woodblocks’ contents as souvenirs, providing courses on the woodblocks’ contents and art, among others. Another representative from the VICAS, Dr. Luong Hong Quang underscored that the development of a tourism model in Vinh Nghiem and Bo Da pagodas should go together with the safeguard of the woodblocks and the pagodas’ values. He laid stress on protecting the pagodas’ traditional festivals and cultural relic sites as well as delivering labour training, while recommending connecting the pagodas with other tourist attractions in the province and neibouring localities. Vinh Nghiem pagoda is storing 3,050 woodblocks carved with Buddhist Sutras, which were given UNESCO’s World Documentary Heritage status. Meanwhile, nearly 2,000 woodblocks in Bo Da pagoda have great values in religion and culture.-VNA